After years of slurring the Haditha Marines, a McClatchy newspaper runs story showing criminal cases against the Marines have fallen apart

Few things about McClatchy's Iraq war coverage are as revolting as the slurs against the Haditha Marines perpetrated again and again by McClatchy's war coverage.

McClatchy reporter Nancy Youssef appeared on left-wing radio in May, 2006 with 2 left-wingers who implied US Marines killed Iraqi women, children and other civilians at Haditha. (Transcript here.) In June, 2008, bureau chief Leila Fadel went on left-wing radio and implied the Marines committed war crimes. (Transcript here.) So Youssef and Fadel both participated in whipping up hysteria against the Marines and all but called them cold blooded killers.

Talk about rush to judgment.

Monday, the Tacoma News Tribune published a piece -- unfortunately it's an AP story, not a McClatchy story, but I'll take it -- reporting the criminal cases against the Marines have essentially fallen apart.

Eight Marines were charged Dec. 21, 2006, with crimes related to the deaths of 24 Iraqi men, women and children during a bloody, door-to-door sweep in the town of Haditha. It’s the biggest criminal case against U.S. troops involving Iraqi deaths to come out of the war.

Charges have been dismissed against six defendants, and a seventh was acquitted. The sole remaining defendant is the squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, whose court-martial isn’t yet scheduled. Prosecutors hope to retry Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, who was the battalion commander at the time.

I say Leila Fadel and Nancy Youssef need to travel to Camp Pendleton and make a public apology to the Marine Corps, to the accused, and to their families.

Hat tip: comments
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Previous:

• Sacramento Bee regurgitates anti-Marine Haditha slur in part 2 of series documenting criminals in the US military
• McClatchy's Leila Fadel continues crusade against Haditha Marines
• Charges against another Haditha Marine dismissed
• Maybe McClatchy would cover the atrocities if they were committed by Marines
  

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